"Tom" wrote in message
...
We have an older house with a few hot water radiators in places we'd
rather put furniture. I'd like to replace a few of them with baseboard
heat. We have a single pipe system with each radiator fed off the "main"
line and a circulation pump. The boiler runs about 170F.

This seems to me to be a relatively simple matter of properly sizing the
baseboard and re-piping, but I'm always underestimating these things. Can
anyone offer some advice? Is there a preference for cast-iron versus
fin-tube baseboard units? Is there a simple way to predict baseboard size
from radiator size?

Thanks,
Tom

Thee is a web site from a plumbing supply house that has the information you
need. I used it recently at work and do not have the information here. A
google search may turn it up. You measure the radiator, count the sections
and multiply for the answer. Simple to do.

Are you planning to keep some of the radiators? If so, you may have a
balance problem witht he heat. Cast iron retains a lot of heat once the
circulator turns off. Finned copper tubing does not. While one room is
still basking in the warmth of the CI the other rooms will be cooled down
more. You can buy CI baseboard. It would have roughly the same properties
of heat retention as your present radiators.

There is information available he
http://www.burnham.com/radiator/58100.cfm I did not check it out, but they
may have a conversion chart. http://www.burnham.com/lit/Baseray4-04.pdf

IMO, cast iron is the best heating system you can have. The only thing
better than cast iron water is cast iron steam.